Opinion Editorials

Denver Post: Blaha should tone down the rhetoric

Posted:
05/11/2016 07:02:30 AM MDT

Does the fact that three candidates stumbled in petitioning onto the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate suggest the process is flawed?

Probably, and lawmakers should take a look at whether some petition requirements are petty and excessive. A few sure sound like they are. But let's clear up something about the secretary of state's role in this affair: It's his job to enforce the law, not give breaks to candidates who are ever-so-close to dotting every "i" — but don't.

We mention this because of how one of the candidates, Robert Blaha, denounced Secretary of State Wayne Williams as a member of the "permanent political class" and urged the Republican to resign as a result of his experience.

It seems Williams had the audacity late last month to inform the Blaha campaign that its petitions to get a spot on the primary ballot fell short. They failed to conform to rules regarding signature gatherers and thus Blaha did not secure the 1,500 signatures required from each of seven congressional districts.

Blaha did not take the news well. Rather than scold his staff or confine his response to a court appeal, he ripped off an over-the-top denunciation of Williams this week that may say more about the candidate than the secretary of state.

You could certainly argue, as Blaha did, that his petitions, flaws and all, met the standard of "substantial compliance" with the law. Blaha took that argument to a judge and she agreed, ordering Williams on Thursday to put Blaha on the ballot.

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We think the judge made the correct call, as she had earlier when she salvaged the campaign of GOP candidate Jon Keyser, who also fell short of the required signatures for technical reasons.

But Williams was equally correct in his initial rulings that the petitions of Keyser and Blaha (as well as Ryan Frazier, whose case is unresolved) were deficient. In fact, District Court Judge Elizabeth Starrs herself said as much.

"In providing Mr. Blaha with a 'Statement of Insufficiency,' " the judge wrote, "the [secretary of state] appropriately reviewed the petitions submitted by Mr. Blaha [and] followed the applicable guidelines ... However, it is the court which makes the determination of 'substantial compliance,' not the SOS" (our emphasis).

Blaha seems to think the secretary of state should have pre-empted the judge's role. How else to explain his diatribe? "This is what the permanent political class does," he declared. "They get in power and feed at the public trough. They are often incompetent, and there is never a political price to be paid."

And Blaha doubled down the next day on talk radio.

Although Donald Trump has used invective to great effect in his campaign for the White House, we hope Blaha isn't about to test whether the strategy can be equally effective in a statewide race in Colorado.

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